along comes a war – Ukraine 2022-2025

My new book, along comes a war – Ukraine 2022-2025, was published by Mad Bear Books on 24 June, to coincide with the NATO Summit in The Hague. I worked with Kyiv-based photographer Bohdana Bun to create a dialogue between poetry and photography and the book is already a #1 bestseller in the photojournalism category.

Blending perspectives from Kyiv with those watching in solidarity from afar, it explores all the emotions and passions and the themes of nationalism, resistance and complicity, while probing how (or whether) art can make a difference.

All profits will go to the Come Back Alive Foundation, supporting Ukrainians in their defence.

Inside, you’ll find:

Activist poetry featuring heroic Ukrainian writer-resisters including Victoria Amelina, Volodomyr Vakulenko and Kazimir Malevich, as well as the long, resonant tale of Snake Island, famous from the age of Helen of Troy and Achilles till the day its defenders said “russian warship, go f*ck yourself”;

Sonnets, villanelles, tanka and haiku with civilian perspectives on conflict, hope, and resilience (Ukrainian and global), including blackseafugue (a modern casting of Célan’s deathfugue) and our dreams are filled with drones;

Striking images capturing the surreality of life under attack, showing the great city of Kyiv in all its seasons, with its street-life and street-art, the mythic figure of Berehniya, the iconic Bridge of Glass, knocked out tanks and drones, seas of flags honouring the memory of loved ones, glimpses of Lviv and Odesa, galleries and parks.

You can order the print and ebook here.

We hope you’ll enjoy it!

 

slingshot moon and hungry sun

The moon is seen by daylight between two branches outlined against a sky of cloudless blue

*

A few days ago, the poet glanced at the moon from a garden.

For a second, the moon looked close enough to grasp but – realising it’s receding from earth at the rate fingernails grow (one and a half inches a year) the poet dashed off this poem:

waxing gibbous moon

floats pale between the branches

ghostly slingshot stone

slowly spinning out into

                                          deep space

                        around

                                          the hungry

sun which will consume us all.

Like everyone, the poet feels days getting shorter as life lengthens – but has also heard that days, actually, are getting longer – over a dozen microseconds longer, every passing year.

And all this time, the sun’s expanding, slowly turning itself into a red giant star, growing more than a hundred times larger. It’s getting ready to devour and feed on the planets, with Mercury and Venus first in line to be consumed.

What unspeakable things Gaia has in store for us in 5 billion years’ time, the poet thinks.

They stop reflecting, dazzled enough by these facts to let stillness soothe their mood as the moon inches away.

*

**

Ō

**

*

Photos taken by Freddie Oomkens earlier this week

The moon seems further awy than in the first picture, we see more branches, the moon is smaller among them